The invention relates to the modification of musical signals and comprises an integrated controller for modifying sound in real time.
The electronic processing of musical signals has been undertaken in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from the professional studio to the strictly amateur music maker. The tools available in the two extreme environments, and their concomitant costs and results, vary greatly, and the amateur musician has generally been foreclosed from significant capabilities of music modification and enhancement, particularly in a performance environment.
Some attempts have been made to provide the individual musician with sound modification or enhancement on specific instruments. One example is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,584, issued Nov. 13, 1984 to Paul Dugas and entitled "Control For Musical Instruments". This patent shows a pair of "joysticks" (FIG. 1, elements 7, 8) whose motion is used to provide simultaneous volume and panning control.
Another example is that set forth in U.S. Pat. 5,403,970, issued Aug. 4, 1995 to Eiichiro Aoki and entitled "Electrical Musical Instrument Using A Joystick-Type Control Apparatus". This patent describes a joystick device for generating control signals for a physical model of a bowed instrument, particularly performance parameters such as bow pressure, velocity, position, and the like (see col. 1,1.30ff).
Such devices are of limited applicability and use. They are specific to a particular type of musical instrument, and rely on that instrument for the fundamental tone on which they will operate. Their range of effects is limited, and shaped to the peculiarities of the instrument with which they are to be used.
Professional music studios have more nearly universal equipment for modifying sound. Such equipment typically provides a variety of effects to sound signals applied to it. e.g. flanging, phasor, reverberation, filtering, distortion, and the like. Some have even included a controller termed a "joystick" but apparently of the finger-grip type only: see, e.g, Red Sound Systems "FX Mixer ". Equipment of this type is expensive, typically built-in to fixed cabinetry, and generally requires significant skill and training to operate